By the Light of the Moon
by Ruthlyn
Summary: New priestess Ruthlyn goes for some training alone in Payon, but ends up being part of a rescue mission.
1. Chapter 1: Undead Guard

"Hello? Is somebody there?"

A frightened voice echoed in a dark, dank hallway. A lone woman walked slowly and carefully, always listening for danger ahead. She stopped, straining to look ahead in the darkness, where she was sure she'd heard something. Footsteps, perhaps, she couldn't be sure. These halls deep under the earth were home to many mysterious noises, whispers of an underground city long since abandoned. After a few moments of listening and hearing nothing, the weary woman continued onward, toward what she hoped would lead her to safety.

From not long after she had finally become a priestess, leaving behind her acolyte clothing to don the robes of her new class, Ruthlyn had spent a lot of time down here. In the caves near the eastern town of Payon, where a civilization perished mysteriously long ago, she strived to become stronger, to master her new skills. However, it was very dangerous here, especially for her. When the spirits of the previous occupants of this dilapidated village sensed her presence, they did not hesitate to welcome her with force. However, they were undead, vampires actually, which could not be better for Ruthlyn. As a servant of God with access to holy power, her skills that would normally heal the living dealt damage to evil creatures like these. That was her strongest weapon here, but unfortunately, it required quite a bit of energy, and at the moment, she didn't have much left.

Her only hope was to get to the doorway she knew she was close to, that led down some stairs to a deeper area of the cave, and another abandoned town. Or perhaps it was part of the same town; Ruthlyn did not know much of the history of this place. What she did know was that just down those stairs was one of the only places she often saw life in this cave. She'd see a passing traveler now or then, but people generally stayed out of this area of the cave. Down in the next section, there were far fewer of the angry munaks and bonguns—those were the names given to the vampires, the munaks being the females and the bonguns being the males. And often, at the bottom of the stairs, weary adventurers and explorers, and even fighters, would sit to rest, creating a small crowd that served to keep each other safe. That is where Ruthlyn needed to get to now.

She passed a pond that was home to a few dozen hydras that would ignore her as long as she stayed out of their reach. Squinting in the darkness that was punctuated by a few torches along the wall, Ruth could see the red outline of a munak on the other side of the pond, but it hadn't seen her yet. She stayed close to the wall, as far away from the pond as she could be, and continued forward slowly and quietly.

Entering the next narrow hallway, she knew she only had to get around the corner in front of her to find the large room where the stairs were. She would be safe soon.

After only a few yards, the hallway opened into the room she was looking for, and the first thing Ruthlyn saw was a small cluster of buildings most of which had broken out windows and doors hanging from their hinges, and all of which were run down to the point of being uninhabitable.

Turning left to face the stairs that would lead her to safety, she stopped dead, her breath catching in her throat. Standing between her and those steps was a pale figure with its back to her. It was nothing more than a skeleton wearing some rather flimsy armor and wielding a sharp dagger in each hand. Ruthlyn had encountered only a few of these before. They were once soldiers that patrolled and guarded this underground civilization, now only shells of what they used to be. But still quite dangerous, nonetheless.

While the skeleton still had its back to her, Ruthlyn quietly moved against the wall behind her. Never taking her eyes off the soldier, she inched along toward the stairs with her back to the wall. She only hoped she could get close enough to the doorway to make a run for it, and pray there would be someone on the next level who could help her.

After a few long moments, the skeleton suddenly turned towards Ruthlyn, and their eyes locked. Seeing no other option, she ran full speed toward the old wooden doorway and took the stairs down with lightning speed. She didn't even know if the creature was following her, nor did she care. She jumped the last few stairs and landed on solid ground, calling out for help as she steadied herself.

She looked up to see with relief that there were indeed a handful of people in the large room, most sitting and resting, a few standing and talking. At the moment, however, they had all turned to look at the woman who had interrupted the quiet. A few started towards her, the first to reach her being a tall, lanky man with rather wild, spiky white hair. He looked at her with a question in his eyes, which grew wide with understanding when he was what came running down the stairs behind her.


	2. Chapter 2: Regexz

Ruthlyn turned her head slightly, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see that pale colored creature look around for only a second before it caught sight of her and narrowed its eyes. Ruthlyn closed her own eyes and waited to feel those sharp, rusty daggers pierce her skin. Instead, she felt a slight brush of air, and heard the sounds of metal on metal as the man who had come to help her threw himself between her and the creature and started slashing at it with a pair of his own daggers.

Ruthlyn gasped, aware now of how scared she had been, only because of the relief she felt. She started backing away, not wanting to be too close to the vicious battle. A few of the other people who were in the room asked if she was ok, and she nodded absently, unable to turn away from her apparent savior fighting her would-be killer.

The fight was over sooner than she expected, and Ruthlyn almost felt foolish for having to run and cry for help. But she knew her energy was far too depleted to have fought that monster the only way she could have—using her healing spell in offense against it, while also keeping herself alive with it. Only now that the fight was over did she even think to sit down and rest. She felt safe now with so many people around her. The tall man who had saved her came over near her and sat down as well.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You didn't look too good when you came flying down those stairs." He gestured toward the doorway on this side of the stairway that was identical to the doorway on the other side.

Ruthlyn nodded. "I'll be okay. I just need a little rest. And thank you so much for killing that thing for me. I don't know how to repay you."

"Ahh, think nothing of it," he waved his hand. "I was just passing by, couldn't let that ugly guy get you." In his other hand, he was idly fingering a hard, rough object. He looked at Ruthlyn. "Here," he said, tossing it to her. "Souvenir."

She caught the object and looked at it. It appeared to be a piece of a human bone, dried out and somewhat flaky. "From the skeleton?" she questioned. The man nodded.

"I'm Regexz, by the way."

"Ruthlyn. Nice to meet you."

He nodded in agreement, then asked, "Mind if I ask what you're doing alone in this cave? You don't look like the priests I've seen who have trained to battle."

Ruthlyn shook her head. "No, you're right, I'm not. I have trained to be a supporter. I don't usually train alone, but lately my friends have been unavailable to come with me. My best friend, Janus, has left the land of Rune-Midgard; the leader of the guild I belong to, Darian, and his brother Raum have been to busy building up the guild; and my friend Murata has just been too preoccupied with other matters to find time to train with me. When I found out about a place where I could damage the monsters with the holy power I know best, I decided to just come here alone."

Ruthlyn stopped talking and looked at Regexz, chuckling self-consciously. "I'm sorry, I talk too much. You don't care about all that stuff."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I've been a lone assassin for a long time now; sometimes it's nice to have someone to talk to. In fact, I could use some help here, if you want to come along and support me. In this area of the cave, there are sohees, spirits of a sad girl who died at a young age. They don't attack first, but if provoked, they are even meaner than the munaks, bonguns, or—" he chuckled," your friend back there."

Ruthlyn smiled. "Let's go provoke some sohees then."

"Are you sure you're ready? I know you needed some rest."

"I've gotten plenty while we've been sitting here. I'm looking forward to getting back to doing what I do best."

"Let's get going then," Regexz stood up, and Ruthlyn did the same, smoothing out her purple robe. She followed Regexz as he started walking, keeping her eye out for any movement. She'd never been further than that first room on this level of the cave, so she couldn't help but take in her surroundings, as much as she could without letting Regexz get too far ahead.

"There," Regexz startled Ruthlyn by stopping suddenly and pointing toward the shadows between a nearby building and the wall behind it. "There's a sohee. You ready?"

He started inching toward the shadow, and Ruthlyn strained her eyes trying to see it. Moving forward just slightly, she could finally make out a dark figure hovering above the ground with long, wild hair blowing as if caught in a strong wind. It unnerved Ruthlyn only slightly, as she felt not even the slightest breeze. But she answered back, "Yes."

"Do your thing, girl." Following his cue, Ruthlyn concentrated on casting every spell she knew on herself and her new friend. When she was done, she readied her healing spell just in case, and nodded at Regexz.

"Excellent," he grinned and strode quickly into the shadows. Ruthlyn followed close behind, watching as Regexz walked right up to the sohee and slashed at it once with the dagger in his right hand. It turned to face him with a blank look on its face. At first Ruthlyn thought it might just ignore him, but it suddenly pulled a shiny, silver knife out of the folds of its billowy, black dress and stabbed at Regexz. He quickly dodged the attack and came back with a few jabs of his own, which landed solidly.

Regexz and the sohee continued to battle, and Ruthlyn paid close attention to her spells, and as soon as one of them ended, she recast it. She was impressed at how agile Regexz was, dodging every one of the sohee's blows, while almost constantly slashing it with his dual-wielded daggers, one hand right after the other. Now and then, he even managed a lightning-fast double attack with his right hand, two hits in the time one normally took.

Regexz killed the sohee before it was able to hit him once. He looked at Ruthlyn and started laughing. "Now that was fun! With all those buffs you gave me, that thing couldn't touch me. Oh, I could get used to this."

Ruthlyn's smile vanished abruptly as she saw a bongun creep up behind Regexz and prepare to strike. Mostly out of habit, she clasped her hands together and cast heal on it, knocking it off guard with a holy blast. Regexz then quickly turned around and took over the fight, finishing the bongun off quickly.

"That's some nice damage you do on those things," he told Ruthlyn. Then he bent over and picked something up. He walked out of the shadow, into the light of a torch on a nearby wall and examined what he'd picked up closely. He gave a low whistle and said, "This is a nice dagger. I've seen these before; if I'm not mistaken, it's a stiletto." He looked at Ruthlyn. "Mind if I keep it? I'll bet I could really hurt some monsters with this."

Ruthlyn shrugged. "What do I need with a knife? You've got more use for it than I do."

"Great," he grinned. "Next time one of these evil things leaves behind anything of value, it's yours, I promise."

Ruthlyn chuckled as they continued further into the cave.

The two fell into a groove as they continued to fight the sohees they found, and even the undead creatures that found them. Ruthlyn had no trouble keeping both Regexz and herself covered with spells to enhance their abilities, and healing when one of them might need it. They kept moving with barely a pause between fights, when suddenly Regexz just stopped walking.

"Do you hear that?" he asked Ruthlyn in a whisper.

"Footsteps," she confirmed. That was unusual, as none of the creatures in the cave walked in any normal manner. They floated, or hopped, or sort of danced around. But none walked as a normal human would. And they hadn't seen another human for a while now, especially none who walked as noisily as this person was…nor as fast. Being especially loud here tended to draw more unwelcome attention than most wanted.

"Maybe someone in trouble?" Ruthlyn suggested. "We can help if they are."

Regexz nodded. The sound was coming from around the corner of a wooden fence to their right, so they continued that way and almost ran into a tall, muscular, green-haired man who was practically running toward them.

Out of breath, the man panted, "Excuse me, excuse me, please, I need your—" he stopped short when he looked at Ruthlyn. "Ruth! I am so glad to see you!" Then his knees buckled under him.


	3. Chapter 3: Raum

As Ruthlyn and Regexz rushed forward to catch the man, Ruthlyn recognized him immediately, though it was hard to believe her own eyes. She still thought of him as the young merchant she used to know, not this tall blacksmith he was now. "Raum? What on earth are you doing down here? Last time I saw you, you up to your elbows in guild business."

He put up a hand in a motion to give him a second, and Ruthlyn and Regexz helped ease him down to sit on the ground.

Regexz rifled in a small pouch and pulled out a bottle containing a red liquid. He pulled off the small cork and held the bottle out to Raum. "You look kinda thirsty, I thought this might help."

Raum took the bottle thankfully and drank the red potion slowly. When the bottle was empty he handed it back to Regexz. "Thanks a lot, uh…"

"I'm Regexz." He held his hand out to Raum to help him up.

"Raum Darkforge, good to meet you." He took the hand that was offered him and stood up, feeling quite refreshed from the potion. "Ruthlyn, I was hoping I might run into you, though I expected to find you further up in the cave, not down here with the sohees."

"Yeah, that's where I would still be if it weren't for Regexz here. The question though, is why are you down here? And what happened to you? You look like you've been in the middle of a war."

He shook his head and chuckled. "That's what it felt like. I was down there…" He nodded his head in the direction from which he'd come, which was now behind Ruthlyn and Regexz. Ruthlyn turned now and could see what he was referring to. She'd never been here, never been on the level deeper in the cave than this, and now she could see that on her own, she'd have likely never chosen to go there either. What she saw looked like a giant head of an evil demon carved out of the rock wall, with menacing eyes and a large gaping mouth full of sharp teeth. The mouth was a doorway to another stairway which led to another level of this cave.

"Why—" she started, not finishing her thought.

"Why the giant head?" Regexz finished for her.

Raum answered them. "I would say it's to keep out anyone who might otherwise just wander in. And believe me…it's a good idea."

"I've heard about those horongs. They sound tough, but—are they that bad?" Regexz was remembering how well he could handle those sohees with Ruthlyn helping him and couldn't help but wonder if he could take those little purple flames too.

"They're pretty rough. They have pretty high defense if you're using normal weapons," Raum gestured toward Regexz's daggers that were now put away. "You'd have to get something that was enchanted with the water property. Makes sense against little flames, right?"

Regexz nodded and Raum continued. "But, the horongs are not really what scares me the most."

Ruthlyn's eyes grew wide. "I've heard of the creature that lives down there. Someone from the guild I used to be in mentioned seeing Moonlight Flower once. He said that the sound of the bell that it carries with it still haunts him. "

"It's definitely something you want to avoid," Regexz said. "I've heard my share of stories too."

Raum stepped a few feet closer to the large mouth, and the doorway to another, darker world. "I was down there. I heard that bell. And as soon as I did, I turned and ran as fast as I could."

"But, why were you down there?" Ruthlyn questioned. "What possible reason—"

"Your cousin." Raum turned to face her.

Ruthlyn stared at him for a few seconds, not quite comprehending what he was saying. "Kali? What about her?"

"She's down there, she went to study Moonlight. Darian was supposed to go with her and keep her safe, but he's been so busy, and she didn't want to wait any longer. She went on her own, about three days ago…and she hasn't come back yet, or even contacted us in any way."

"That's not like her; she knows she needs to check in."

"Exactly."

"So you came down to find her?" Regexz filled in.

"Yes, and I did find her. But then I heard that bell not far enough away, and—"

"Wait," Ruthlyn interrupted. "You found her?! Well, where is she? Is she okay?"

Raum shook his head. "I don't think so. She was on the ground, face down. She appeared to be breathing, but she looked pretty dirty and beat up."

"We have to go get her! We have to bring her back up here!" Ruthlyn started to feel frantic, imagining every moment that passed bringing her cousin closer to slipping away.

"Of course we will," Regexz said firmly. He looked Ruthlyn in the eyes. "We will find her, she will be ok, I promise."

Raum looked at Regexz and tilted his head. "We have to move fast then, that creature was nearby. If it finds her…"

"How do you know that's not what happened to her in the first place?" Regexz asked him. "Anyway, it doesn't matter what happened, or what could happen. Let's just come up with a plan and do this." He added, "There's no way, even with three of us, that we could take on Moonlight."

"Well, first of all, I have something that might help," Raum offered. "I don't usually do this until I know someone and trust them, but since you're going to help us save Kali, I have to trust you now after having just met you. Darian lent me this to bring down here, to help me find her. I think you can make a lot more use out of it." He handed Regexz a dagger with an ornately carved handle, the blade of which glowed a slight blue. "It's a gladius that is enchanted with the ice property. As I said before, it's the best to use on horongs. We already know you can take the skeletons and the archers, since you two have been doing fine here, right?"

Regexz nodded, still staring at the gladius Raum had handed him, turning it over in his hand, admiring it. He looked up then and said, "Those are no problem, and with this, horongs may well not be either. Raum, can you remember where you found her once we get in there?"

Raum nodded. "I can find my way back, but that's where Moonlight was."

"We will obviously have to do this without an encounter, if possible, and get out as quickly as possible. Ruthlyn, you have the warp portal skill, right?" Regexz asked her, starting to formulate a plan in his head.

Ruthlyn nodded, "I do, but—" she dug her hands deep into a small pouch that hung at her side and pulled them out empty. "I don't have any of the gemstones that I need to cast the portal."

Raum let out a quick, sudden, "Oh!" He jogged over to a large boulder near the stairway and reached behind it, pulling out a small wooden cart. He looked into the cart for only a second before finding what he was looking for, which he picked up. He held his hand out to Ruthlyn and she saw five sparkling blue stones sitting there.

She smiled. "Still a merchant after all, hmm?" She held her pouch open and he poured the gemstones into it. He then reached back into his cart and brought out a handful of small, thin, paper-like items.

"Fly wings," he explained.

Regexz held up his hand quickly and said, "I have a few—"

Raum interrupted, "And now you'll have more than a few. If we run into trouble down there, we fly to safety and regroup. We won't be any help to Kali, lying hurt on the ground next to her."  
Regexz agreed and took the wings.

Raum pulled one more thing out of his cart and handed it to Ruthlyn. She looked at the bottle filled with purple liquid.

"Grape juice?" she guessed.

Raum nodded. "We're going to be relying on you a lot down there; if you run too low on energy, drink some."

"Thanks a lot, Raum," Ruthlyn said, then looked anxiously at Regexz. "So what's the plan?"

Regexz started explaining. "The way I see it, we play to the strengths we know we have. As soon as we get inside, Ruthlyn, you shoot us all a boost of speed, and whatever else you think is necessary. We proceed quickly and cautiously toward where Raum saw Kali, killing horongs and whatever else finds us on the way. With this bad boy," he fingered the handle of the borrowed gladius once again, "none of that should be a problem. If everything works out, we'll find Kali, grab her, and get out without any trouble. But, if we do run into Moonlight Flower, best thing I can think of is this. Raum, lure the creature away while Ruthlyn and I find Kali. Ruthlyn will do what she can for her here, while I keep any monsters off her back. Raum, lose Moonlight and come back to us as soon as possible; use some wings if you need to. Then we'll all just get out of here with one of Ruthlyn's warps. Sound ok to everyone?"

Ruthlyn nodded, feeling unsure of her ability to help in this situation, but only for a second. She pushed that thought away quickly, reminding herself that this is, after all, what she was built to do.

Raum nodded as well, adding, "I'm glad I bought this chain mail last week; I'll need all of the defense I can get."

Ruthlyn smiled and Regexz chuckled. "You'll do great. And with Ruthlyn's _Increase Agility_ cast on you, Moonlight shouldn't even be able to touch you. All you'll really need to do then is keep your eye out for horongs and skeletons. If you can dodge them, you'll be home free."

The three stood looking at each other for a few seconds, each one thinking over their own role in this rescue, and looking for any possible holes in their plan. Ruthlyn was the first to speak.

"Let's do it," she said, rubbing her hands together. "The sooner, the better."


	4. Chapter 4: Moonlight

Regexz gave a quick nod, and Raum grabbed his cart and rushed to stow it behind the same boulder. The three walked quickly over to the giant head made out of rock and right up to the mouth. Regexz took the lead and headed down the stony steps quickly, with Ruthlyn and Raum right behind him. As they emerged on the other side, the first thing Ruthlyn noticed was the high brick wall directly in front of her that ran both directions, as far as she could see. Directly to the right of where they'd entered stood the skeleton of a tree which she knew had probably died a long time ago. Oddly, it was backlit by a faint purple light.

"It's almost beautiful," she said quietly. "You know, besides the creepiness."

Regexz chuckled softly, then got serious again. "That purple light is probably a horong behind the tree. Everyone look sharp, we're about to find out if this whole thing is even possible. If we can't kill this horong easily, we have no chance on the rescue."

"Let's do it then," Raum said, pulling out his chain, ready to do what he could to help.

"Wait," Ruthlyn held her hand up. "Just give me one second." Both guys faced her and waited for the slew of spells she was about to cast. Ruthlyn knew this was the truest test of her abilities and that every one of her skills would be important. _Blessing_ – increased all three's strength, accuracy, and magical power, which was key for her. _Increase Agility_ – raised their dodge rate, attack speed, and most importantly, how fast they could walk. _Angelus_ – increased their defense; Ruthlyn figured this might be critical in this fight against such strong enemies. _Magnificat_ – sped up their health and energy regeneration, another one that was critical for her, in keeping her energy high enough to keep casting spells as needed. _Impositio Manus_ – just for the guys, this one increased the damage their weapons would do.

After casting all these spells on herself and the others, she gave Regexz a quick nod to let him know she was done. Regexz took the ice gladius in his right hand and the new stiletto he'd found earlier from the sohee in his left. He walked toward the tree and Raum followed. Before he had gotten to the base of the tree, the shadows caused by the purple light started to move, to shift. Regexz and Raum both stopped and watched as a small purple shape appeared from behind the tree. It was low to the ground, and danced around like the flame on a candle. It closed the distance to Regexz rather slowly, and by the time it got to him, Regexz had both daggers at the ready and was in a battle stance. He couldn't help but think to himself how easy of a fight this would be. This thing was so slow and small, he couldn't imagine it being much challenge.

The horong floated up to Regexz and he waited to see what it would do. Raum quietly walked over and stood behind it—at least he thought the side facing Regexz was the front. The horong seemed to have no eyes, so he didn't figure there was much chance he would be surprising it by sneaking up on it. For that matter, he had no idea how he could possibly attack a creature made of fire with a chain.

For a few seconds, the horong simply hovered between Regexz and Raum, then suddenly it made an odd yelping sound and split out into four smaller flames that surrounded the main one and jumped backward toward Raum, but only for an instant. At the same moment, Raum cried out in pain and jumped back a bit.

"What did it do to you?" Regexz yelled, confused about what he'd just seen.

"I don't know," Raum replied, "but it hurt!" He held up his arm to show a red burn that covered a majority of it.

Before anyone could react, the horong repeated its previous action, only aimed towards Regexz this time. He flinched slightly then looked down.

"I guess it missed me," he said. He and Ruthlyn then acted simultaneously; Ruthlyn cast heal on Raum while Regexz swung his daggers at the flame. Like Raum, he had no clue how metal weapons would possibly harm a flame, but when he attacked, he found out. The gladius, which was enchanted with the ice property, sliced right through the horong, but it did not feel like it was going through air, as he imagined it would. It felt more like the horong had a consistency of water, maybe even a little thicker. Whatever it was though, it seemed to Regexz that he hurt it, because the horong recoiled. It didn't take long to respond with another attack of its own, which Regexz was waiting for. He dodged the attack and started retaliating with his daggers, the gladius noticeably hurting it more than his regular stiletto.

As soon as he started in, Raum, who was now fully recovered, came back to stand on the opposite side of the horong from Regexz. He picked up the chain that he had dropped when the horong burned him and swung it through the small, purple flame, feeling the same density as Regexz. It was pretty obvious that his attacks went mostly unnoticed by the horong, compared to those of Regexz, but Raum was determined to do what he could to help bring this thing down faster. The horong never took its attention off of Regexz, which was fine with Raum, because he knew an assassin could dodge its painful attacks better than he could. It was easier on Ruthlyn too, having only one person to concentrate on watching. The horong did manage to get a hit in on Regexz now and then, but Ruthlyn would heal him before he even had much time to feel the pain.

After about a minute of trading blows, the horong stopped attacking and suddenly fell to pieces on the floor. Both Regexz and Raum stood in their battling stances for a few seconds before deciding that that must mean they'd killed it.

Ruthlyn smiled and said, "Well, that wasn't so bad, right?"

Regexz shook his head. "I think I can take them alone too, with Ruthlyn backing me up, if Raum has to go be bait at some point."

"That's good, because unless someone else has been around down here, I doubt Moonlight has moved from where I spotted it."

"Let's go then," Ruthlyn took a deep breath. "I don't want to leave Kali down here hurt any longer than we have to."

Regexz again took the lead, with Raum telling him which direction to go, and they headed through a wide passageway. As they walked toward a large gate in the brick wall that lead further into this part of the cave, they encountered a skeleton like the one that had chased Ruthlyn before. Regexz and Raum killed it quickly. They also passed a few sohees, but at the moment, they were more than happy to leave them in peace. They walked through the gate and came face to face with another wall, brick this time. They stopped and Raum looked around to remember which way to go from here.

Ruthlyn noticed more trees towering above the wall on the other side. From what she'd read about this place, it used to be a garden. She'd even seen drawings of the flowers and vegetables that had been grown there. All that was gone now though, and it was now just a cold, dark, lonely place, full of great evil. She shivered at the thought. 

"Go right," Raum stated, as he backtracked in his mind the way he'd gotten out of this place earlier.

Regexz followed the direction and came face to face with a horong. They quickly finished it off like before, and continued on. Eventually they came to a corner in the hallway they were in and as they walked up to it, they saw a gap in the inner brick wall to their left. Raum motioned for them to turn and go through the opening, and they did. And in doing so, they walked into a large room, the center of this level of the cave. The middle of the room itself was on higher ground than where they were standing, and in front of them were steps leading up to it.

Raum whispered, "Ok, hold up." Regexz stopped and turned around. "Up on that center area is where Kali is, but it's also where I heard Moonlight. Kali was on the opposite side from here, and from the sound of it, Moonlight would actually be between here and there. But by now, it could really be anywhere up there."

Regexz suggested, "I think we should go by what you last knew for sure. We'll walk around to the other side and go up the stairs there. If Moonlight has moved and is there, we just follow our original plan of Raum luring it away. Sound okay?"

The other two nodded, and they started walking to their right, staying along the wall. Taking out a few more skeletons and horongs, they walked past another set of stairs before turning the corner that brought them to the opposite side from where they started.

Regexz walked up to the bottom of the stairs and motioned for the other two to stop. He walked up three stairs, and from there could just peek over the top and see what was on the upper platform. He turned and walked back to Ruthlyn and Raum and whispered, "It's up there." 

Wide-eyed, Raum asked, in a whisper as well, "You saw Moonlight?" Regexz nodded.

"Did you see Kali?" Ruthlyn wanted to know.

"I saw what looked like a person lying on the ground. It's pretty dark and she was far enough away, but, does she have light-colored hair?" 

Ruthlyn nodded. "White."

"It could be her, would be pretty likely, since that's about where Raum said he saw her. We have to get Moonlight away now, it's our only chance."

Raum half smiled. "Hey, shoot me with another dose of that speed, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Ruthlyn did that and more, giving everyone a fresh boost of all her supportive spells. Raum led the way up the stairs and Ruthlyn and Regexz stayed as close to the outside of them as possible, and a little ways behind him. They wanted to make sure Raum was the first and only thing Moonlight noticed, and that it decided to target him and ignore them. Raum walked slowly to the top of the stairs, looking around as his view of the upper floor expanded, gauging his escape route, how he would get past Moonlight and make sure it followed. As his foot came to the next to last step, he stopped suddenly. Ruthlyn and Regexz stopped as well, a few steps down, trying to see what had caused him to stop.

They heard him say in a whisper so quiet they could barely hear it, "I don't see it."

They both walked up a few more steps and looked for themselves. Regexz whispered, "It's not where I saw it a minute ago. I don't see it at all either."

"Me neither," Ruthlyn agreed, "but I do see Kali!" It took everything within her to keep from running over to her cousin's body. "She's not moving, I don't even think she's breathing. She's—she's—"

"It's okay, Ruthlyn, don't jump to conclusions," Regexz assured her. "And anyway, as long as we can get her out of here, we'll find someone to help her, I promise."

Ruthlyn nodded, fighting back a few tears that were forming. She'd be of no help if she started to break down now.

"It's gone, this is our chance," Raum whispered, stepping up onto the last step. The other two abandoned their previous attempts to stay behind him and followed him onto the upper floor.

In the exact center of the area was a tall, dirty, and crumbling statue of, as best as Ruthlyn could make out, a man sitting in a chair. She certainly had no idea who this man was, or why he was so apparently important in this place long ago. Kali was lying a few yards left of that statue, from where they stood, and lying on her side, facing away from them. And, as Ruthlyn had observed, she didn't appear to be breathing.

Regexz took a few steps toward Kali, and suddenly two pale figures danced out of the shadows and positioned themselves between Kali and her rescuers.

"Still guards even in death," Raum muttered as he and Regexz strode quickly over to the skeletons and started attacking.

Ruthlyn stayed back, knowing that her position was never in the middle of the battle. She watched as her two friends exchanged blows with the two undead soldiers. She knew this fight was little trouble for them, but stood ready in case one needed healing anyway.

Suddenly, every muscle in Ruthlyn's body tensed and she froze. There was a sound, behind her. It almost sounded like the ringing of a bell. She turned quickly, dreading what she might find. Nothing. After a few long seconds, the only sound she heard was of the fight behind her, and she saw no movement. She relaxed and shook her head, almost amused by her own jumpiness.  
The first thing Ruthlyn noticed as she turned back around was that there was only one skeleton left. She then realized that she was farther away from the guys than she really felt comfortable with. As she took her first step toward them, she was stopped short by a brief flash of light in front of her. She blinked a few times, slightly disoriented, then saw the creature that had come with the light, standing a few feet in front of her. Ruthlyn had never seen anything quite like it before, except in drawings. But none had ever captured the sinister, mischievous look in its eyes.

Moonlight stood no taller than Ruthlyn, and was a rather odd-looking creature. It seemed to be a human-shaped monster, dressed up in some sort of fox outfit. The most attention drawing about it, though, was what it was carrying. A long stick, probably as tall as the monster itself, with a large bell on the end. At the moment the bell was silent, but with no warning, Moonlight raised the stick high over its head as if to strike, and Ruthlyn only had one thought in her mind: _Run_.


	5. Chapter 5: Chased

She ducked and ran under Moonlight's raised arms, and her eyes desperately searched for somewhere to go. To her right was a set of stairs similar to the ones they came up, and others they'd passed. She ran down them and slowed. She instinctively turned around and saw that Moonlight was only slightly slowed by her maneuver. It lowered its bell, turned to find its victim, and started jogging, almost skipping, toward the stairs. Ruthlyn then saw Regexz and Raum, having now finished off the last skeleton, realizing what was happening. She noticed Regexz gesturing for her to run, and she realized she'd have to assume the role they'd come up with for Raum, leading Moonlight away while the other two got to Kali.

With Moonlight getting close, coming down those stairs now, she turned toward the wall that surrounded the large room they were in, and saw a gap in it. She ran toward it, going around the corner and leaning against the wall on the other side. She took a few steps away from the gap, listening for Moonlight's approach. She knew she had stay reachable, or Moonlight might just give up and go back to where the guys were, which would be disastrous. Luckily, Moonlight made no attempt to keep quiet, so Ruthlyn could easily hear when it was getting close to coming around the corner she was behind. And as soon as she heard it right outside the wall, she started jogging in the opposite direction, down the hallway between the two brick walls. She decided she was not going to attempt to get away until she was close to the entrance to the upper level. From what she knew of this place, that was as far from center as one could be here.

By now, she was only a few yards from the opening in the outer wall that would take her to the outer-most hallway of this place. Glancing over her shoulder, her heart nearly jumped into her throat when she saw how close Moonlight was to her. Almost within that bell's reach. She broke into a full sprint, closing the distance to the opening quickly, and spinning around the corner. Both ends of the hallway were too dark to see, but Ruthlyn was pretty sure that turning left here would be the quicker way to get back to the entrance. She squinted her eyes and hurried into the darkness in that direction, not knowing what she might run into, but realizing it couldn't be anywhere near as evil as what was behind her.

Hearing Moonlight at a safe distance behind her, she slowed down slightly, and noticed a silhouette in the darkness. When she got a few steps closer, she recognized the shape of a skeleton, facing away from her. Groaning, she looked behind her, trying to decide the best way through this. Moonlight didn't seem to be in much of a hurry, but it was still moving quickly enough down the hallway after her. Ruthlyn felt her only option was to kill the skeleton as quickly as possible, and just as she prepared to cast her heal spell on it, she noticed another, much smaller shape float up next to the skeleton.

_There's no chance I can take a horong_, she thought to herself frantically. That left her only one option. She jogged forward, reaching the monsters in seconds. She had hoped to slip by the skeleton, figuring she could easily outrun a horong at least, but not a skeleton soldier. Unfortunately, the skeleton whirled around to face her right as she came near it. Out of instinct, she shoved the butt of her palm into its face, knocking it backwards. At the same time, she felt a sharp piercing pain in her right side. She knew she hadn't hurt the skeleton much, just thrown it off balance, but it had to be enough. She broke into a run, skirting past the horong, and reached the next corner in the brick wall, ducking behind it.

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Ruthlyn looked down at her now throbbing side to see a gaping gash in her robe, and under that, a wide, bleeding slash in her skin. Hearing Moonlight right on the other side of the corner she was next to, and for all she knew, the skeleton too, she pressed her hand against the wound and started running as fast as the pain would let her. She didn't know how long she could go like this, but she needed to get far enough ahead to be able to heal herself. As she ran, she felt most of her spells wearing off, and unfortunately, _Increase Agility_ was one of them.

She was slowing down, injured, and being chased by at least one evil monster that could kill her easily. She started to panic, looking around for anyone, anything to help her. It was too soon to teleport away, she knew that. If she could just get to that entrance they came in at, she could take care of her wound and finally try to get back to Kali and the two guys. She ran by another horong; it started following her, but luckily wasn't fast enough, and stopped pretty quickly. She ran a few more steps, then stopped to catch her breath. Looking behind her, she knew she had only a few seconds before she needed to get going again. She had to be close, had to be, or she wouldn't make it. She looked in front of her, strained to see through the darkness, and noticed something familiar – that tree!

She started sprinting toward it, knowing that it was right next to the exit. As Ruthlyn reached the tree, she practically fell against it, crying out in pain. She couldn't hear Moonlight for the time being, which meant it had to be a ways down the hallway still. The first thing on her mind was healing that wound, so she closed her eyes, doing her best to concentrate, and cast a weak heal on herself. Looking down at her side, she saw that the wound was not completely healed, and cast another, even smaller heal. Next on her list was to recast some of the more important spells that had ended while she was running, the first being her speed booster. By the time she was done with that, she could hear Moonlight coming again, and she decided as soon as it came into her sight, she would teleport. Standing up, she prepared to cast the teleport spell, and suddenly realized something that made her heart sink. She was out of energy, not even enough to teleport.

Turning around, Ruthlyn started to think about running up to the area in the cave up the stairs. She didn't even know if that creature would follow her up there or not, but it was all she had left to do now. Until the thought struck her – the grape juice! She pulled it out quickly and drank half of the juice in the bottle, feeling her energy returning. Now she could see Moonlight, and it was coming toward her with its bell raised above its head, ready to attack.

Ruthlyn closed her eyes and cast teleport, opening them in a different area of the cave. She was in one of the hallways though, and from the look of it, one of the outer ones. She needed to get closer before trying to find her friends, so she teleported again. This time, Ruthlyn opened her eyes to find herself standing next to a tall, branchless tree. Slightly curious, she looked closely at it, only to find it looking back. She gasped and then noticed the arms that had been at its side, now coming up to surround her. She teleported out of its grasp, just as it clapped its hands together where she would have been.

Ruthlyn had to use her teleport skill two more times before she found herself looking at Regexz, standing about 20 yards in front of her. He saw her immediately.

"Ruthlyn!" he cried, waving her over. She ran over to him and saw Raum a few feet behind him, kneeling over Kali's body. "We weren't sure what we could do for her while we waited, but Raum wanted to at least see if he could get some orange potion into her, while I kept guard." Ruthlyn noticed the bottle in Raum's hand then, mostly full still. 

Raum looked up at her and said softly, "Unfortunately, it looks like she's past the aid of potions, and probably your healing abilities either. I don't suppose you know how to—"

Ruthlyn interrupted sadly, shaking her head. "I haven't learned how to resurrect yet, it's pretty advanced."

"Trust me, Ruthlyn," Regexz assured her. "Just get us out of here and we'll find someone who can help her. I promise."

Ruthlyn nodded and rummaged around in her pouch, pulling out one of the blue gemstones Raum had given her. She held it tightly in her hand and uttered a few words that caused the gem to disappear from her hand. A small, bright, swirling light materialized on the ground in front of her and expanded until it was about 4 feet across. And with the light came a constant high-pitched whining sound.

"Get Kali through the portal!" Ruthlyn yelled over the sound. "I have to go in last; it'll close up behind me!"

Raum carefully picked Kali up into his arms, with Regexz's help, and stepped into the light of the portal, disappearing. Regexz followed him close behind, and Ruthlyn closed her eyes and went in last, with the portal closing behind her. Once again Ruthlyn opened her eyes in new surroundings, this time completely outside the cave, in a village. Raum was explaining to Regexz that their guild house was in Payon, the town that this village was next to.

"That was the best place I could think of to take Kali while we found someone to help her," Ruthlyn explained, already casting _Increase Agility_ on each of them to speed up the short trip.

"Let's go then," said Regexz eagerly. "Lead the way."

Three hours later, Ruthlyn was sitting next to a bed in a small, dark room. It had only taken them a few minutes to get to the guild's headquarters in Payon, and now she was sitting with her cousin, waiting to hear word from Regexz, who was trying to dig up a more experienced priest. When the door to the room opened, Ruthlyn jumped up quickly, disappointed to see her friend and guild leader Darian Merco standing there instead.

"Sorry," he said, "it's just me."

"It's ok," she said dismissively. "How'd it go down there?"

"Everything went well," he replied. "We were able to get Raum's cart back with very little trouble."

"That's good," Ruthlyn gave a half-smile. Darian was an assassin, even a bit stronger than her new friend Regexz. When Raum decided to go back into the cave to retrieve the cart he'd left behind, Darian insisted on going with him. "I only wish you could have been with Kali when she went down to study that monster."

"Kali is a good friend of mine, Ruthlyn," Darian reminded her. "You know I'd have never let her go alone if I'd known. I told her I'd go with her in a few days, but I guess she didn't want to wait. You know how impulsive she can be."

Ruthlyn nodded. The tears started welling up in her eyes again, and this time she felt no need to fight them.

Just then, Regexz rushed into the doorway behind Darian, out of breath. "I was able to make contact with my brother, Kreexz, and he knows a priest who can help us. We're going to Geffen."

"Geffen!" Ruthlyn choked. "That's at least a 6 day walk, and I can't warp us there."

Regexz shook his head. "It's covered. Raum is outside now looking for someone who can. There are so many acolytes and priests out there; one of them has to have Geffen as a destination." Regexz walked over to the bed and picked up Kali, then walked back through the doorway he'd just come in through.

Before they followed him, Darian looked at Ruthlyn and chuckled. "You know, he'd be a great addition to our guild."

Ruthlyn grinned. "I couldn't agree with you more."


End file.
